Real Madrid’s manager knows it will be tough to beat Atlético on Sunday but the Italian is serene in his second spell
Hello again. The day that Carlo Ancelotti returned to Real Madrid, a chance conversation about something completely different unexpectedly bringing him back to Spain six years later, he looked around Valdebebas and saw familiar faces everywhere, comfort in the lack of change. “The same physios, the same kit men, the same journalists, the same vision, the same demands of greatness,” as he put it. “Everything is immutable: the only thing that changes is the coach.”
It is there, anyway. Since he left, Madrid have been through five of them: Rafa Benítez, Zinedine Zidane, Julen Lopetegui, Santi Solari and Zidane again. Barcelona have been through six. By contrast, Sunday’s opponents from across the capital – rivals who have proven as big as Barcelona, at least for Ancelotti – have not been through any. Atlético Madrid have changed homes, moving out of the Vicente Calderón and heading to the Metropolitano 22km north-east, but not their coach. And so a familiar face awaits Ancelotti at the Santiago Bernabéu.
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